GLF

I have seen several home made fishing video's. I would like to make some of my own. What are you using for a video camera? What are you using for software on your computer to make and edit them?

Nice catch Tim!

That is one dark fish! Nice fish Skeiner!

I have the Big Jon triples on my sides. Being able to adjust the position of the rod holder with one hand is fantastic!

DIRTY DOG, hit the nail on the head. I am looking for charts that show the bottom sediment.

I am looking for a chart that has the bottom composition of Lake Michigan. Does anyone know of a website, or a place where I can get this chart?

Saturday June 14th at Au Gres City Park I made the post about the Stinger Challenge on Lake Michigan, and wanted to touch base with everyone about the Stinger Challenge on Lake Huron. There will be a Stinger Challenge on Lake Huron in 2008. We are working on the date and a location. It will be in the month of June. I will have another post with more details and the lure package when we have everything finalized.

Stinger Challenge 24 May 2008 Blow date - 25 May 2008 Fishermans Landing, Muskegon, MI What is the Stinger Challenge? The Stinger Challenge is a fishing event with everyone on the same playing field. Everyone receives the EXACT SAME lure package at a discounted price! Everyone is limited to having no more than 6 lines in the water at one time. This gives the person with 2 people in the boat the same chance as someone with 4 people in the boat. The lures in your lure package are the only lures you are allowed to use. If you loose one or all of your baits, you are not allowed to replace it/them with another lure from your box. What does is cost to fish in the event? There are two costs associated with this event. One is the entry fee for the event($30.00($5.00 go's toward big fish pot)), and the other is the cost of your lure package. What does the lure package consist of. The lure package will consist of: 2 Stinger Spoons(Standard Size) 4 Stingray Spoons 2 Magnum Spoons 2 Flashers 2 Flies The cost of the package has not been determined. What color are the baits in the lure package? You will not know the colors of your lures until the morning of the event. This is another elements of the challenge. No one knows what colors they are getting. Can I just pay for the discounted lure package and not fish in the event? Absolutely not! If you do not show up for the event, your lure package will be DONATED as a prize at the event, and your money WILL NOT be refunded. In the event you sign up for the challenge and can not make it, you may try to find someone to fish in your place. When will I get my lure package? I will have everyones lure package in a bag at the boat ramp, the morning of the event. When the entry fee for the event is paid, you will get your lure package. Fishing Event Rules: 1 - Entry fee($30.00) is to be paid by 5:30am. I am planning on leaving the dock at 5:30am. 2 - You are not allowed to alter the appearance of a spoon in your lure package. ie...no adding/removing tape, or adding paint. You may change hooks. 3 - You are only allowed to fish the lures that are in your lure package. If you are caught fishing with a lure that is not in your package, you will be disqualified. 4 - If you loose one or all of your baits, you are not allowed to replace it/them with another lure(s) from your box. 5 - You may not set a line before 6am 6 - You may not have more than 6 lines in the water at a time. If you are caught with more than 6 lines in the water, you will be disqualified. 7 - You must be checked in at Fishermans Landing by 1pm. There will be someone on the dock to check you in when you come in. If you are not checked in by 1pm, you will be disqualified. 8 - Weigh-in will start at 1:30pm. 9 - There is no limit to the amount of people in your boat. 10 - You may not have in your possession more than a 3 person limit. 11 - You may only weigh in 5 fish of any kind. Chinook, coho, steelhead, brown trout, or lake trout. 12 - Each salmon(chinook or coho) you weigh in is worth 10 bonus points. Each trout(brown trout, lake trout, or steelhead) is worth 15 bonus points. 13 - Make sure you know which fish is your big fish before you come to the scales. NO CHECKING AT THE SCALES! 14 - NO CULL RULE - If you net the fish or box the fish you must keep the fish. There will be no throwing back fish unless they are under size. 15 - All boats will leave from Fisherman's Landing by water, and return to Fisherman's Landing. 16 - If your boat breaks and you can not make it in by check in time, you may bring your cooler in another boat to weigh-in. Someone from your crew needs to accompany it. 17 - All boats/coolers will be checked at the ramp before the tournament begins.

Here are the tentative dates for the 2008 Tournament Trail season. You can get more tournament information here. May 3-4 * Michigan City, IN - Dreamweaver Hoosier Coho Club Classic May 9-11 * St. Joseph, MI - SW MI Steelheaders Summer Challenge May 16-18 * South Haven, MI - South Haven Steelheaders Big Jon Pro/AM May 23-25 * Onekama, MI - Onekema Shakedown May 30-June 1 * Grand Haven, MI - Offshore Challenge Pro/Am June 20-22 * Manistee, MI - M.C.S.F.A. Budweiser Pro/Am July 11-13 * Muskegon, MI - Cabela's Salmon Shootout July 17-20 * Ludington, MI - Gander Mtn. Offshore Classic July 25-27 * Manistee, MI - Salmon Splash Aug 1-3 * Holland, MI - The Big Red Classic Aug 9-10 * Saugatuck, MI - Waypoint/Tower Marine Pro/Am Aug 15-19 * Sturgeon Bay, WI - Sturgeon Bay Offshore Challenge Aug 22-24 * Frankfort, MI - Benzie Fishing Frenzy Aug 29-31 * Traverse City, MI - Grand Traverse Salmon Classic Sept 5-7 * Bay Harobr, MI - Bay Harbor Fishing Tournament

Here is one of my favorites. They did not make it to the channel on the way out before they were asleep.

Lets see some of your sunrise/sunset pictures from this year. Here is one of mine from a morning trip in June. After the sun came up, it got REALLY foggy.

I had one of them. I was fishing out of Muskegon on one of the days of the Grand Haven Offshore Challenge. He kept busy that day eating flies.

If everything is shut down.....there will not be anyone to bust you?????

Happy 42nd Birthday Rich! Hope you have a GREAT one today!

A couple of men chartered the Joe Cool for a trip to the Bahamas. The boat was found floating north of Cuba, its crew missing—and feared dead. Two men are in custody. A ghost-ship story. Sept. 27, 2007 - Jake and Kelley Branam’s lives were full of promise. Earlier this year, Kelley, 30, gave birth to the couple’s second child, Morgan (their first, Taylor, is 3). Around the same time, Jake, 27, started a charter-fishing-boat company in Miami Beach, Fla., with his uncle Jeff and cousin Jonathan. The outfit’s first vessel: a beautiful, refurbished 47-foot sport fisher they christened the Joe Cool. It was a dream come true for Jake, who grew up working on fishing boats and loved nothing more than chasing big catches in the open sea. Though the couple lived with Jake’s grandmother in a $10 million, eight-bedroom waterfront home on Miami Beach’s Star Island—with such celebrity neighbors as Rosie O’Donnell—they “were very down-to-earth,†says Kelley’s grandmother, Donna Jean VanLaar. Kelley was “an outdoor girl,†who loved nature and fed and nurtured a pet raccoon. But the Branams’ idyllic lives were apparently clipped short this week. They, along with Jake’s half brother and the boat's mechanic, Scott Gamble, 35, and his friend and first mate, Samuel Kairy, 27, disappeared at sea, while taking two clients to the Bahamas. Authorities believe that the four-member crew was murdered. Those likely topping the list of suspects are the pair who hired them: Kirby Archer, 35, who’s accused of stealing more than $92,000 from a Wal-Mart in Batesville, Ark., and Guillermo Zarabozo, 19, an acquaintance of his. The Coast Guard found both men Monday morning, drifting on a life raft not far from the Joe Cool, which was missing its crew and in disarray. Though Zarabozo told the FBI that hijackers seized the boat and killed the crew, authorities are skeptical of his account. On Wednesday, the U.S. attorney in Miami charged Zarabozo with making false statements and Archer with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in the theft case. Neither has been charged in connection with the disappeared crew, and on Thursday evening, the Coast Guard called off its search without finding any bodies. Both are awaiting arraignment and have yet to enter pleas. Archer and Zarabozo first approached the Joe Cool's first mate last Friday at the Miami Beach Marina, according to the Branam family. The pair said they wanted to charter a boat for a one-way trip to Bimini in the Bahamas, where they said their girlfriends awaited them. The first mate agreed, and the next day, Archer and Zarabozo arrived at the dock with six bags. Pulling a wad of cash out of his pocket, Archer paid the $4,000 fee with $100 bills. He was “Southern, polite and likeable, not an arrogant jerk,†says Jonathan Branam, who was there but did not make the trip. His father, Jeff, who accepted the payment, says he didn’t find it odd that Archer paid in cash, since Miami Beach is “a rich man’s playground.†Though Kelley didn’t usually travel on jobs, she decided to join the Joe Cool this time, because it was the weekend and only a one-way charter (she left the kids with Jake's grandfather). The crew set off on Saturday afternoon; it was the fledgling business's first-ever charter to the Bahamas. Archer and Zarabozo first approached the Joe Cool's first mate last Friday at the Miami Beach Marina, according to the Branam family. The pair said they wanted to charter a boat for a one-way trip to Bimini in the Bahamas, where they said their girlfriends awaited them. The first mate agreed, and the next day, Archer and Zarabozo arrived at the dock with six bags. Pulling a wad of cash out of his pocket, Archer paid the $4,000 fee with $100 bills. He was “Southern, polite and likeable, not an arrogant jerk,†says Jonathan Branam, who was there but did not make the trip. His father, Jeff, who accepted the payment, says he didn’t find it odd that Archer paid in cash, since Miami Beach is “a rich man’s playground.†Though Kelley didn’t usually travel on jobs, she decided to join the Joe Cool this time, because it was the weekend and only a one-way charter (she left the kids with Jake's grandfather). The crew set off on Saturday afternoon; it was the fledgling business's first-ever charter to the Bahamas. Continuing its search for crew members, the Coast Guard found Archer and Zarabozo the following morning on an inflatable lifeboat about 12 miles away from the Joe Cool. According to the criminal complaints, Zarabozo claimed that unknown armed hijackers seized the boat at sea. They shot and killed the captain, he recounted, then shot the captain’s wife “because she was hysterical.†Zarabozo said the hijackers ordered each of the two remaining crew members to throw the bodies overboard—killing them too when they refused. When the hijackers asked him to jettison the bodies, Zarabozo claimed, he complied. Yet authorities had reason to doubt his truthfulness. When they asked him to identify the Joe Cool, which was being towed behind them as they returned to land, he responded that he didn’t recognize it—despite the discovery of his ID card on board. For his part, Archer told authorities he was aware that a warrant had been issued for his arrest by Arkansas authorities. Archer had apparently been on the run for months. Prosecutors in Arkansas accuse him of robbing the Wal-Mart in Batesville where he worked as a customer-service associate and was known for being “a loner,†according to store manager Thomas Baxter. On Jan. 26, authorities allege, Archer collected cash and checks from various registers as part of his customary duties. Then, they say, he stashed the loot in a microwave oven, paid for the oven at a checkout counter and disappeared from town less than 24 hours later. The following day, a court in Independence County, Ark. issued a warrant for Archer’s arrest on a felony charge of property theft. Archer left behind a wife (his third), two kids and an apparently troubled past. His wife, Michelle Archer, says she hasn’t heard from her husband since he disappeared in January. Still, she describes him as “a great father†and “a very passionate man.†But Kirby Archer’s previous wife, Michelle Rowe, paints an entirely different portrait. The couple’s bitter 2005 divorce is described in lurid detail in an Arkansas Court of Appeals ruling that initially awarded custody of their two kids to Archer. Among the allegations the couple leveled at each other: that Archer’s father had sought oral sex from Rowe; that Rowe was involved in a lesbian relationship; that Archer had a gay partner and would sometimes “make out†with another man in front of the children, and that Archer once gave Rowe a black eye. The appellate judges sounded appalled in their ruling: “While we agree with the trial court that the conduct of both parties has been less than stellar and in some cases reprehensible, we cannot say that the trial court’s decision to grant custody to Kirby is clearly against the preponderance of the evidence.†Eventually, however, Rowe won custody. Interviewed by NEWSWEEK, she said she “really didn’t know him when I married him, and obviously I don’t know him now.†http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21019200/site/newsweek/

I changed the name of this thread to "Fishing Photos". Lets see some of your fishing photos.

I have caught a mixed bag of fish in it. Coho, kings, and steelhead, depending on what depth I was pulling it. I think it will be a GREAT bait for steelhead!

Its not a very good picture of the spoon. It is a tangerine spoon with killer tape. This is known as a "Killer Tangerine".

Great story Scott!

Happy 38th Birthday Tim! What did you get for your B-Day?

Who is going out deer hunting on opening day or archery season? I may make it out opening night. I am finding it hard to head into the woods while the boat is still in the water.

How many of you received a pm from dharma? I have banned dharma for his buddism pm's he has been sending. If you receive a pm from someone for solictation or whatever, forward it on to me and I will take care of it/them.

No problem. We have a tutorial on how to upload and post pictures here.

Here are a couple of photos from a June fishing trip that were emailed to me the other day. Look at the bait ball on the fish finder. Steelhead on a Craigs x-mas. This king was on a Carmel Dolphin. Notice my sons hat. One botched net job. No, I was not manning the net.

special x's Lake Trout. What a beauty it is!